Mohsin Hamid Quotes

I have been dealing with illness and its manifestations since I was a teenager, and I think that gives me a very healthy respect for the things in life we can't control.

When it comes to our collective health, how we deal with the multiple crises and problems around us also depends on the power of context - in other words, our resilience.

You do learn how to cope from those who are coping.

I like to see what happens to people when they're thrown into really crappy situations. I think it's really interesting to watch what decisions they make, how they deal with the feelings they have.

I was lucky because my upbringing was so eccentric. It has helped me cope with unreal situations.

As much as I love L.A., I don't want to live in L.A. I feel very congested when I'm in the city.

When I was growing up as a kid, it was always, 'Oh, you're being bullied. Well, toughen up. Get some tough skin and deal with it.' That's how we were told to deal with it, and it's not that simple.

I usually don't let any kind of pressure bother me.

Tension happens. It will continue to happen. If we didn't have tension, we wouldn't be alive. How we maintenance ourselves makes all the difference in how we live our lives.

I miss the Bay Area - the kind of laid-back lifestyle. Because in Hong Kong, you're going, like, 90 miles an hour, which is fun when you're young.

I've got a lot better at dropping emotions if something goes wrong, or right.

You can either let the pressure get to you or let it help it make you better.

We're lousy at recognizing when our normal coping mechanisms aren't working. Our response is usually to do it five times more, instead of thinking, maybe it's time to try something new.

Spending my 20s in Detroit has been incredible for me.

What I work hardest at is just trying to not let things get me crazy.

New York can be a tad stressful.

Cities are drivers of growth and wealth, and at the same time, cities are becoming increasingly violent.

Living in a city is stressful absent terrorism.

You have to be enough of a parent - you have to be there. If I'm feeling bad, I really do just have to get on with it and try and channel it back into my work somehow, do something positive with it.

I grew up in the inner city. It wasn't a joke.

I know how to deal with pressure.

I learnt a lot about how to react to tough, pressure situations.

There are times for all of us when all the laughter seems to be gone, but we should not permit these periods to last too long. When we've lost our sense of humor, there isn't very much left. We become ridiculous. We must then go to war against the whole world, and that's a war we cannot win.

Something horrible may have happened to you, but you always have a choice in how you respond to it. You have the "Why does bad stuff always happen to me? I'm never going to find happiness" option, and the "This sucks but I'm going to learn and evolve from it, examine what role I played in it, and ultimately it will help me become the person I'm supposed to be" option.

As a man handles his troubles during the day, so he goes to bed at night a General, Captain, or Private.